Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906)

Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906) was an Indian painter who achieved recognition for his depiction of scenes from the epics of the Mahabharata and Ramayana. 1848 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... For the computer graphics program, see Corel Painter. ... The epic is a broadly defined genre of poetry, which retells in a continuous narrative the life and works of a heroic or mythological person or group of persons. ... The Mahabharata (Devanagari: महाभारत, phonetically Mahābhārata - see note), sometimes just called Bharata, is the great religious and philosophical epic of India. ... Lord Ram, Laxman, Sita and Hanuman(crouching) The Ramayana (Sanskrit: march (ayana) of Rama) is part of the Hindu smriti, written by Valmiki (c. ...

Ravi Varma was born in the royal palace of Kilimanoor, which is situated 25 miles from Thiruvananthapuram, in Kerala, India. Ravi Varma showed talent at a young age. He got the patronage of Ayilyam Thirunal Maharaja of Travancore when he was 14 years of age, and was taught by the palace painter Rama Swamy Naidu. He was later taught oil painting by a British painter Theodor Jenson. The power and forceful expression of European painting fascinated Ravi Varma, which came across to him as strikingly contrasting to stylized Indian artwork. The quintessential medieval European palace: Palais de la Cité, in Paris, the royal palace of France. ... Thiruvananthapuram district in Kerala Indian Coffee House Thiruvananthapuram or Thiruvanathapuram (formerly known as Trivandrum) is the capital (population - 889,191 (2001)) of the state of Kerala, India. ... Kerala (or Keralam) (കേരളം) is a state in South India, occupying a narrow strip of Indias southwestern coast. ... 1. ... Travancore (originally called Thiruvithaamcoore, in Malayalam) was a princely state in India. ... The Mona Lisa is perhaps the best-known artistic painting in the Western world. ...

Raja Ravi Varma came to widespread acclaim after he won an award for an exhibition of his paintings at Vienna in 1873. He travelled throughout India in search of subject for his paintings. He often modeled Hindu Goddesses on South Indian women, whom he considered beautiful and had met. Ravi Varma is particularly noted for his paintings depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and Nala and Damayanti, from the Mahabharata. Ravi Varma's representation of mythological characters has become a part of the Indian imagination of the epics. He was and still is criticized for being too showy and sentimental in his style. However his work remains very popular in India. Vienna (German: Wien [viːn]) is the capital of Austria, and also one of Austrias nine federal states (Bundesland Wien). ... 1873 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... This article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). ... A goddess is a female deity in contrast with a male deity known as a god. A great many cultures have goddesses, sometimes alone, but more often as part of a larger pantheon that includes both of the conventional genders and in some cases even hermaphroditic (or gender neutral) deities. ... A map of South India, its rivers, regions and water bodies. ... The Recognition of Sakuntala is a play in Sanskrit written by Kalidasa. ... This article is about a system of myths. ...

Ravi Varma, Woman Playing the Veena

Raja Ravi Varma is most remembered for his paintings of beautiful sari-women who were very shapely and graceful. He stayed in the city of Bombay in Maharashtra for some years and drew many a beautiful maharashtrian women. After a successful career as a painter, Raja Ravi Varma died in (1906) at the age of 58. His paintings are considered to be one of the best examples of the fusion of Indian traditions with the techniques of European academic art. Download high resolution version (493x704, 87 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Download high resolution version (493x704, 87 KB) Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Woman playing the vina, by Raja Ravi Varma Veena (also spelled vina) is a stringed instrument used in Carnatic music. ... Illustration of woman in a traditional sari, ca. ... This article or section should be merged with Mumbai Mumbai (previously known as Bombay) is the worlds most populous conurbation, and is the sixth most populous agglomeration in the world. ... Maharashtra (महाराष्ट्र) is a state in west-central India. ... Image of a woman on the Pioneer plaque sent to outer space. ... 1906 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Academic art was an art movement, and a style of painting that was in fashion in Europe from the 17th to the 19th century. ...

Criticism of Raja Ravi Varma

Raja Ravi Varma's philosophical outlook is not known or documented, especially his understanding of the Western Art form, though it should be acknowledged that he received formal and systematic training. Those who seek to critically examine his contribution are severely impaired in their project by the absence of any literature written by him (one would require an interpretation of the diary maintained by his brother - also his co-worker and assistant. This is being published by OUP. Neumayer, Erwin and Christine Schelberger (forthcoming), 'The Diary of C. Raja Raja Verma, Brother of Raja Ravi Verma', OUP).

He is criticised for having overshadowed the traditional art forms by the use of oleographs to flood the society with his form of myth in static realism. By dispensing abstraction in favour of stiffness, Ravi Varma can be considered as having in one stroke undermined the traditional art, which is both dynamic and rich in form and content. One can find an illustration of this argument in the figures of Durga in West Bengal (http://www.basconline.org/images/durga.jpg) or in the folk form of Madhubani Paintings (http://www.avenues-of-sight.com/Pragati/peacock-large.jpg). In comparison, Ravi Varma's approach (http://www.liveindia.com/maa/durga.jpg) clearly lacks this dynamism of expression. Moreover, his approach of frontality, which is in turn an application of the western "Academic Art", has severe limitations in terms of space and movement. By rejecting the traditional models of representation (for example, Chitrasutra is the treatise on art outlined in Vishnudharmottara Purana), he has reduced myth to the level of ordinary humans, a form that has been thoughtlessly copied in all depictions of myth on other mediums such as cinema and television (See TV series Ramayan and Mahabharat). DG Phalke, considered the father of Indian cinema, is considered to have been influenced by Ravi Varma's static realism.

External links

Paintings of Raja Ravi Varma (http://www.kamat.com/kalranga/art/raviverma/)

Ravi Varma's Paintings (http://www.cyberkerala.com/rajaravivarma/)

OUP's forthcoming book on Raja Raja Verma's diaries (http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ArtArchitecture/History/NonWestern/~~/cHI9MTAmcGY9MCZzcz1wdWJkYXRlLmFzYyZzZj1jb21pbmdzb29uJnNkPWFzYyZ2aWV3PXVzYSZjaT0wMTk1NjU5NzE2)

Chitrasutra

SOAS - Benoy K Behl (http://www.soas.ac.uk/art/behl.html)

Essay in Frontline journal by Benoy K Behl (http://www.frontlineonnet.com/fl2120/stories/20041008000106400.htm)